Robert Skidelsky on Money, the Good Life, and How Much is Enough

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🗓️ 1 October 2012

⏱️ 55 minutes

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Summary

Robert Skidelsky, noted biographer of John Maynard Keynes and author (with his son Edward) of the recently published How Much is Enough, talks with EconTalk host Russ Roberts about materialism, growth, insatiability, and the good life. Skidelsky argues that we work too hard and too long. He argues that the good life has more leisure than we currently consume and that public policy should be structured to discourage work in wealthy countries where work can still be uninspiring. Skidelsky criticizes the discipline of economics and economists for contributing to an obsession with growth to the detriment of what he says are more meaningful and life-enhancing policy goals.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to Econ Talk, part of the Library of Economics and Liberty.
0:06.4	I'm your host, Russ Roberts of Stanford University's Hoover Institution.
0:11.0	Our website is econtalk.org where you can subscribe, comment on this podcast, and find links
0:16.3	and other information related to today's conversation.
0:19.0	You'll also find our archives where you can listen to every episode we've ever done
0:23.1	going back to 2006.
0:25.4	Our email address is mailadykontalk.org, we'd love to hear from you.
0:32.9	Today is September 20, 2012, and my guest is Robert Skydelski, author of many books, including
0:39.1	a much celebrated biography of John Maynard Keynes.
0:42.4	His latest book, co-authored with his son Edward, is How Much Is Enough, Money and the
0:47.6	Good Life, which is the subject of today's program, Robert, Welcome to Econ Talk.
0:52.7	Hello, very glad to be on.
0:57.5	Now you start your book with a discussion of an essay of John Maynard Keynes, quite a
1:01.5	provocative and fascinating essay, which is titled Economic Possibilities for Our Grand
1:07.4	Children.
1:08.4	It was written in 1930 or published in 1930, and it was Keynes's vision for the future,
1:14.6	and it's quite an interesting vision.
1:16.9	What was that vision?
1:19.6	Well, I think basically the vision was that when societies became sufficiently rich,
1:28.2	they would ease off on work.
1:31.4	And he wrote, as you said, in 1930, he thought that by now the average standard of living
1:37.8	in most societies in the West would be about four or five times higher than in 1930.
	...

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